Summary and Analysis of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The New Jim Crow tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Michelle Alexander’s book.

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This short summary and analysis of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander includes:

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter summaries
• Detailed timeline of key events
• Profiles of the main characters
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander:

Legal scholar and civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander’s invaluable and timely work, The New Jim Crow, examines what she calls the new racial caste system in United States: mass incarceration.

Following the practices of slavery and institutional discrimination, Alexander argues, mass incarceration is part of America’s legacy to dehumanize and disenfranchise African Americans and Latinos. According to Alexander, “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

Thanks in a large part to the War on Drugs, more than two million people are in America’s prisons today—an overwhelming majority of them are people of color who’ve been jailed for minor drug charges. When these adults leave prison, they are often denied employment, housing, the right to vote, and a quality education. As a result, they are rarely able to integrate successfully into society.

The New Jim Crow is a well-argued call to dismantle a system of policies that continues to deny civil rights, decades after the passing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.

The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.